I just caught the first episode of Da Capo II and, as a long-time fan of the game and the franchise in general, I must say, “WTF!?” The whole episode is just one huge blasphemy.

But if you have never heard of the series before or if, heaven forbids, you are a Koko fan, then it’s actually a pretty decent first episode of a series that’s clearly trying its best to differentiate itself from its source material. But I am a fanboy and I find the overall lack of Nanaka to be highly disturbing.

For a quick summary of Da Capo II, I quote myself:

For the uninitiated, Da Capo II is the sequel to the popular bishoujo game Da Capo. Both the Da Capo and Da Capo Second Season anime series are actually based on the first game, leading to much confusion amongst casual fans and the non-hardcore. This time the main character is Yoshiyuki Sakurai who has not one but two sisters unrelated by blood, Otome Asakura and Yume Asakura, the granddaughters of Nemu (heroine of the first game).

So yeah, it’s a pretty generic harem series made for the sole purpose of leeching fanboy money. But it’s reasonably good due to a good mix of character types and a generally strong cast of seiyuu, which I will talk about later. But let me first tell you what I think of episode one…

Point number one, this is the single best scene in the entire episode.

Or shall I say the single best split second. Because it’s part of the opening animation and the only other appearance by Nanaka has her surrounded by a bunch of annoying fanboys (I hate fanboys). WTF!? This makes it considerably difficult for me to enjoy the rest of the episode.

Secondly, Yume, the protagonist’s stepsister, is voiced by Yui Horie! WTF!?

Basically, because D.C. II takes place 50 years after the original, a few of the heroines are related to the characters in the first game. Yume Asakura is the granddaughter of Nemu Asakura, while Nanaka Shirakawa is the granddaughter of Kotori Shirakawa.

In the anime adaptation of the original series, and especially in the Second Season, the producers decided to go with Nemu for the happily-ever-after ending instead of Kotori, the bestest best heroine in the entire Da Capo franchise (tied with her granddaughter). This decision pissed me off a great deal and bought them an express ticket onto my list of people-to-be-killed.

Although Yui Horie had no involvement in the games, she played the role of Kotori for both seasons of the original series, so it’s entirely ill-fitting for her to be taking on the role of Yume, the granddaugter of Nemu. If anything, she should be voicing Nanaka.

This brings me to my third point of discontent: Nanaka is not voiced by Hitomi Nabatame!

Hitomi did an exactly job playing Nanaka in the game. Usually well-funded anime adaptations prefer to drop obscure seiyuu used by the original 18-kin games in favour of more recognizable mainstream names, which is why Yume is not voiced by the same seiyuu as the game. But for Nanaka, this is clearly not true as Hitomi has also appeared in numerous high profile titles such as Shana, Marimite and Sukuran. Whatever the reason is, I hate this decision.

In the anime, Nanaka is voiced by Minori Chihara (Yuki Nagato). WTF!?

Sigh.

Well, these are actually all very personal reasons for my disliking of the first episode. In all fairness, the production value appears to be fairly high and the plot is not copied wholesale from the game, making it somewhat original.

Also, I think that an Otome ending is highly possible, and she is quite high up on my list (not the one of people marked for death, the other list), so I shall continue following this series.

Okay, I’m lazy to describe the episode any further (or at all), so I shall do it the Anime Bloggers Way® and spam a ton of pictures instead. Actually, I’m too lazy to do even that, so I’m going to just insert this table of thumbnails which was auto-generated using Media Player Classic. :)

Click to view the full version

I hate Koko.

For the uninitiated, Da Capo II is the sequel to the popular bishoujo game Da Capo. Both the Da Capo and Da Capo Second Season anime series are actually based on the first game, leading to much confusion amongst casual fans and the non-hardcore. This time the main character is Yoshiyuki Sakurai who has not one but two sisters unrelated by blood, Otome Asakura and Yume Asakura, the granddaughters of Nemu (heroine of the first game). Oh right, the story also happens to take place 50 years after the first game. Read my past entry for more details.

As everyone should know by now, my favourite D.C. II girl is Nanaka Shirakawa. So here’s a picture of a pillow cover featuring her!

Haha, good stuff. Still with me? Anyway, on a related note, Kadokawa and CIRCUS are working on a PS2 version of Da Capo II called “Da Capo II Plus Situation” (D.C.II P.S). Oh my god I didn’t see that one coming. At all. New story paths will be added and a Comptiq will be polling its readers to determine who gets to be one of the new heroines. It’s got to be either Akane or Iinchou…

Also I forgot to mention this, but I actually own a PS2 now! So yay for me! I’ll get my PS3 as soon as PS4 is released. :)

More pictures to follow.

Nanaka Shirakawa teacup from COSPA!

I have a confession to make: I am a huge Nanaka fanboy. *gasp* I know, I know, it’s a shocking revelation. But it’s really a nice teacup… orz. I mean, come on, Nanaka in her hatsumode kimono and Chibi Nanaka on the reverse side, that’s a sure-fire recipe for fanboy overloading.

Thanks to Kieth Keith from KKnM for helping me secure it. I love that store. Everyone should buy from them. (Do I get discounts for this?)

If you don’t live in Singapore, you can always get Nanaka online from HLJ for ï¿¥800.

Moving on…

It’s Lacus Clyne! Lacus-sama! Lacus-sama! Lacus-sama!

Confession No.2: I am a huge Lacus fanboy. *more gasps* This 1/8 PVC figure from Megahouse’s RAH DX series returns Lacus to her somewhat lolilicious younger appearance from the original SEED.

As is mandated by Japanese industrial laws, she comes with removable skirts. Haruhi bless Japan.

Or you can leave only the top part of her skirt on to get a pseudo miniskirt. Mmmm… Human ingenuity reaches new heights.

One last look at her purplish-pink pantsu. Mmmmmm… And a pink Haro. Don’t forget the pink Haro.

You can get Lacus from HLJ for ï¿¥4,000.

Kasumi was an impulse buy. I don’t even like Dead Or Alive. This 1/6 figure of her from Max Factory originally came in blue, followed by white. Black is the top secret colour variation obtainable only by cool people like me. Yup.

Unfortunately, she’s probably sold out online, except maybe on some way overpriced websites. It’s quite an old release after all.

Just look at those nice-looking… strands of hair. Uh. Yeah. Those.

If you live in Singapore, you can get her from Urban Attic located on the 5th floor of Funan. Unlike tj han and tsubaki, you probably won’t get any discounts for mentioning my blog. :3

And of course, Mahoro. You can see the nice pictures here and buy her from HLJ for ï¿¥10,000.

Some pictures of the bike without Mahoro.

And on a final note: ALL YOUR FIGURES ARE BELONG TO CHINA!

Deep down in my heart, I knew this was going to happen. It was only a matter of time. But I didn’t expect it to be this soon. 心の準å‚が・・・！

Anyway, COSPA has started taking preorders for a Nanaka dakimakura cover. As you may or may not know, Nanaka is the hawtest girl in Da Capo II, ever.

It costs a cool ï¿¥9,000 excluding tax (in other words, standard COSPA price) and you can preorder one from CDJapan.

It seems like as long as I am connected to the Internet, I’ll never be able to save a single cent. Grrr. (*pokes moyism*)

Sad to say I own the entire series of that book

So the question is… What should I die for?

Item No.1

D.C. II – Nanaka Shirakawa mousepad + phonecard set

• Price: 3,500 yen
• Probably more since they don’t ship overseas and I have to use a middleman.
• Mousepad size: 190mm x 220mm

Everyone knows that I am a Nanaka fanboy. The design used by the phonecard is, in my opinion, the best CG of her in the game. I want this bad. The other D.C. II girls are also available from Chara-Ani.

Item No.2

D.C. II – Nanaka Shirakawa limited edition Zippo lighter

• Price: 7,000 to 10,000 yen
• Probably more since it’s Yahoo Auctions
• Officially licensed Zippo lighters
• Sold during Comiket 70
• Only 300 made, each with a serial number

I don’t smoke. I don’t collect lighters. BUT THIS IS JUST WAY TOO COOL. (Okay, maybe my definition of “cool” is a bit off) Each lighter has its unique serial number, which tickles my inner collector soul. The original retail price at Comiket was 6,000 yen, so Yahoo Auction prices aren’t too bad. Yet. (Just wait till a D.C. II anime is announced) Oh so tempting…

Item No.3

1/20 Tachikoma from Megahouse

• Release Date: Feb 2007
• Price: 10,000 yen
• Made of ABS
• Multiple articulations
• 130mm tall

I am lazy. I bought the 1/24 Tachikoma model kit last year and have yet to open the box. This however is pre-built, bigger and cooler. The only catch is that it’s a few times the price of the original too.

Item No.4

School Rumble – Yakumo Tsukamoto pillow cover from COSPA
School Rumble – Eri Sawachika pillow cover from COSPA

• Release Date: 20/11/2006
• Price: 9,000 yen each

Wait! I know what you are thinking… Take a deep breath. Relax. Anyway, COSPA quality is worth the money. But as much as I like Yakumo and Eri, they are not exactly my favourite characters of all time. Still, somewhat interested.

Item No.5

Want to buy: money-printing machine plz!

Anyway, considering the fact that I’ve already pre-spent most of my money for the next year or so, I think I need to think carefully about this and not make any rash deci…

…Oh fuck it. Nanaka is calling for me!

I was bored, so I transcribed Nanaka’s D.C. II image song by ear… You can get a low-quality encode here. A few parts were quite iffy, especially “æ„›ãã¹ãã¨æ€ã†æ‚ã‚’”.

I finished Nanaka’s path for Da Capo II today. Nanaka forever!

Although Nanaka’s power is similar to Kotori’s, her story is somewhat different. In many ways, it can even be said that she is better than Kotori. (forgive me Kotori. ;_;)

Well, I’m too lazy to write a proper review now, especially since I haven’t played through any other paths, which I will only do after a full walkthrough is released. For now, here’s a bunch of pictures of Nanaka! イエー！～

On another note, according to this site: “Myuu Tanaka”, the voice credit for Nanaka, is actually Hitomi Nabatame. She is more well-known for her roles as Yuuna Miyama in Maburaho, Aruceid Brunestud in Shingetsutan Tsukihime and Mikoto Suou in School Rumble.

She also voiced Yuma in To Heart 2 under a pseudonym for the PC version.

A short introduction: The main character is Yoshiyuki Sakurai. He lives with his two foster sisters, Yume Asakura (younger) and Otome Asakura (elder). Somehow, he possesses the exact same powers as Jun’ichi did, which are snack-conjuring and seeing the dreams of other people. Koko Tsukishima is the shy introverted childhood friend, Minatsu Amakase is the banana-hating tsuntsun girl (i.e. complete opposite of her namesake), Akane Hanasaki is the over-developed classmate, Anzu Yukimura is the creepy under-developed classmate (think Ichigo from Onegai series except less cool) and…

Nanaka Shirakawa is the campus idol + hands down the best character in the game. Good genes from Kotori. *wub*

More stuff and screenshots after the jump.

Jumped.

So anyway, nothing much has changed since the first game. The art feels somewhat different due to the lack of Naru Nanao (original character designer for D.C.) but it’s still of good quality. Especially Nanaka. Moving on…

The game system is still the same old stuff. Well, there is a slight change in that the creators seem to be using character portrait size and angle to indicate the positions of the onscreen characters in relation to one another. It’s not perfect considering all the stuff are in 2D, but it achieves its effects.

Yoshiyuki, don’t go to the dark side!

Anyway, Yume sounds somewhat like Nemu. Otome sounds quite different from what I imagined (which was closer to Moe’s voice from the original D.C.). Yume calls you “nii-san” and Otome calls you “otouto-kun”. *shudders*

To get to Nanaka’s events, all you have to do is to select the option with 「渉のクラス」 in it for two times. :P There’s nothing much to talk about for the short demo, so I shall leave you with some Nanaka pics. ^_^

“un. nigeru~”

“konnichiwa kuma-san~”

Here you can see how her portrait is placed closer to the screen.

*faints*

“au~ tabetai na……”

The official site for Da Capo II (not to be confused with Da Capo Second Season) has been updated once again.

The update reveals yet more characters and the only unknown character left is the player. The newly revealled characters are:

• Mayumi Kousaka – likes sports and contests, hates people who speak indirectly. Second year and good friend of Otome Asakura.
• Maika Mizukoshi – school nurse. Mizukoshi… daughter or granddaughter of Moe/Mako?
• Suginami – good friend of the main character. Seems to take after his name…
• Wataru Itabashi – good friend of the main character. Likes H. Suginami + this guy = gg main character?

Other then the new characters, the Information page has also been updated with a notice that D.C. II goods will be onsale during the winter Comiket (which is in about two-weeks time). I want all the ones with Nanaka on them. 日本へ行きたい！～